Rajapaksa to table Budget 2009 Thursday, security tightened in Colombo

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 05 November 2008, 17:07 GMT]
Tight security has been imposed in and around parliamentary complex located in Jayawardhanapura. Several roads leading to the parliamentary complex have been banned for traffic Thursday morning for one hour and in the evening when parliament concludes its session for the day. The security measures have been taken as the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa is scheduled to table his fourth Budget for the year 2009 in parliament Thursday morning in the capacity of Finance Minister.
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Sri Lanka's parliament extends emergency

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 04 November 2008, 18:36 GMT]
Sri Lanka's parliament Tuesday extended the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of seventy five votes. Eighty five parliamentarians voted for the motion and ten against. Parliamentarians of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and National Freedom Front (NLF), a splinter group of the JVP voted with the government, parliamentary sources said.
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Compulsory registration of Tamils, another act of oppression - TNA MP

[TamilNet, Saturday, 04 October 2008, 13:14 GMT]
Compelling all Tamils from North and East currently residing in Western province to register with police is another act of oppression, and has caused fear and apprehension, stated K.Thurairatnasingham, Trincomalee district Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian in a media communique released Thursday.
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Sri Lanka parliament extends emergency

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 09 September 2008, 14:17 GMT]
Sri Lanka's parliament Tuesday adopted a motion moved by the government led by President Mahinda Rajapakse to extend the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of 99 votes. 110 parliamentarians voted in favor for the motion to extend the emergency. Eleven parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) voted against the motion. Parliamentarians of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) abstained, parliamentary sources said.
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JHU walks out of APRC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 August 2008, 02:02 GMT]
Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), Sri Lanka's all monks' political party which has nine members in parliament, informed Sri Lanka's President Mahinda Rajapakse that it would not participate in the deliberations of the All Party Representatives Council (APRC) in future as it has lost confidence on the body in finding a consensus to solve the ethnic conflict on the basis of Mahinda Chinthanaya.
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Sri Lanka parliament extends Emergency

[TamilNet, Thursday, 07 August 2008, 05:41 GMT]
The State of Emergency imposed in Sri Lanka on 12th August 2005 was extended by another month Wednesday by Sri Lanka's parliament by a majority of seventy two votes. Eighty four parliamentarians voted in support of the extension, and twelve voted against, parliamentary sources said.
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JHU accuses five UPFA ministers supporting devolution

[TamilNet, Friday, 25 July 2008, 10:54 GMT]
The Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), all monks' party condemned a group of ministers who have been supporting devolution of police and land powers to provincial councils according to the 13th amendment to the constitution. JHU leaders at a press briefing held Thursday said ministers in the UPFA government have formed a movement to urge the government to devolve police and land powers to provincial councils. JHU media spokesman Nishantha Sri Warnasinghe said the JHU would oppose such move and would take stern steps to crush the movement.
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Stay order extended in tsunami house distribution to Muslims

[TamilNet, Thursday, 19 June 2008, 16:47 GMT]
The Supreme Court Thursday extended its interim stay order in the Fundamental Rights petition filed by the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) parliamentarian Venerable Ellawela Methanananda Thera and officials of Deegavapi Restoration Committee against the distribution of about five hundred houses constructed under tsunami rehabilitation project to members of the Muslim community, legal sources said. The three member bench of the Supreme Court said the stay order would be in force until the inquiry into the FR petition is over. The inquiry has been put of for September 9.
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Emergency extended for another month

[TamilNet, Thursday, 05 June 2008, 21:01 GMT]
Sri Lanka's parliament Thursday adopted the motion to extend the state of emergency by another month with a majority of 89 votes. 106 parliamentarians voted for the motion and 19 parliamentarians voted against. Parliamentarians of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) were not present in the house at that time when the motion was put to vote, parliamentary sources said.
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Court suspends distribution of tsunami houses to Ampaa'rai Muslims

[TamilNet, Monday, 26 May 2008, 16:05 GMT]
Sri Lanka's Supreme Court Monday issued interim injunction stopping the distribution of three hundred houses constructed in Deegavapi area in Ampaa'rai district for tsunami affected Muslim families affected tsunami until the inquiry into the petition filed by the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) parliamentary group leader Venerable Ellawela Methanananda Thera and six others from Deegavapi Buddhist Restoration Association is completed, legal sources said.
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JHU files court action against giving 300 tsunami houses to Muslims

[TamilNet, Friday, 16 May 2008, 17:28 GMT]
A petition seeking interim order to stop the distribution of three hundred houses constructed in Deegavapi area in Ampaarai for tsunami affected Muslim families has been filed in the Supreme Court by Venerable Ellawela Methanananda Thera , a parliamentarian of the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) and six others from the Deegavapi Restoration Association, legal sources in Ampaarai said. The houses have been constructed by the Sri Lanka Red Cross Society (SLRCS) under the tsunami rehabilitation project.
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JHU opposes granting land, police powers to EPC

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 14 May 2008, 10:18 GMT]
The all-monks Sinhala Buddhist nationalist party, Jathika Hela Urumaya (JUH), which has 9 seats in the Sri Lankan parliament, has said that it would oppose granting "internal security and land allocation powers" to the newly elected Eastern Provincial Council (EPC). The All Party Representatives Committee (APRC) has not suggested anything about granting land and police powers to EPC at any stage, said Venerable Ellawela Methanananda Thera, leader of the JHU addressing media on Tuesday in Colombo. He added whether Pillaiyan or Hisbullah comes as chief minister, EPC should take immediate steps to "resettle all Sinhalese earlier chased out of the province."
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JHU monks, oppressors not freedom fighters- paper

[TamilNet, Sunday, 06 April 2008, 01:46 GMT]
Protesting against the statement in a Washington Post article that linked "militant monks in Sri Lanka's ruling elite with nonviolent Buddhist protesters in Tibet and Burma," Roger Severino, Legal counsel for Becket Fund for Religious Liberty said "saying that Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) fits the tradition of monks across Asia who have embraced political causes" confuses oppressors with freedom fighters.
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Eastern PC election, another step in Sinhalasisation of East - TNA

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 02 April 2008, 05:32 GMT]
The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has projected himself as an "ultra Sinhala nationalist leader" in all his decisions since taking office in 2005, was going ahead with his agenda of Sinhalasising the Eastern sector of the North-East, the historical habitation of Tamil speaking people, in the guise of development, splitting it into High Security Zones, Industrial Zones and Environmental Zones, after de-merging the North-East, in violation of the Indo-Lanka International Treaty, said R. Sampanthan, the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Parliamentary Group, who issued a statement of principles on Wednesday, clarifying the reasons for boycotting the Eastern PC elections.
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Sri Lanka’s parliament Monk shuns Nonviolence- paper

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 26 March 2008, 14:25 GMT]
Athurliye Rathana, a celebrated monk and a Sri Lanka parliamentarian, “sounded more like an army general than a legislator or monk” when he said, "[w]e can sort this out on our own. We tried to discuss things, but the LTTE always wanted to fight. We must do our duty on the battle field," Washington Post said in an article that appeared in the Wednesday edition.
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JHU allies with ruling UPFA to contest Eastern PC election

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 19 March 2008, 16:38 GMT]
Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), all monks political party has decided to contest the forthcoming East Provincial Council election as an ally of the ruling United Peoples Freedom Alliance, the government controlled Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) reported in its night news bulletin Wednesday night.
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Nominations called for Eastern Province Council elections

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 18 March 2008, 00:12 GMT]
Representatives of political parties and independent groups have intensified political activities and have taken steps to choose potential candidates after the Elections Department called nominations for the forthcoming Provincial Council elections in the East, sources said. Elections are to be held for the three districts in the east- Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Ampaa’rai, but Dayanantha Dissanayake, the Elections Commissioner (EC), has not yet fixed the date of the elections.
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Emergency extended in Sri Lanka for another month

[TamilNet, Thursday, 06 March 2008, 07:26 GMT]
The Sri Lanka's parliament Wednesday adopted the motion extending the State of Emergency for another month by a majority of 88 votes. 102 parliamentarians voted for the motion and 14 against, parliamentary sources said. Parliamentarians of the main opposition United National Party (UNP) and Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) were not present in the parliament when the motion was put to vote.
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Monk accused as LTTE supporter begins fast-unto-death campaign

[TamilNet, Monday, 03 March 2008, 13:16 GMT]
The chief priest of Batticaloa Mangalaramaya Vihara, Ampitya Sumanarathna Thero commenced a fast-unto-death campaign Monday morning from 7:00 a.m., demanding that Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) parliamentarian Ellawela Thero withdraw the complaint lodged at Batticaloa police station accusing him as a supporter of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
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APRC proposals postponed again

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 January 2008, 13:47 GMT]
Rajitha Senaratne, the Sri Lankan minister of construction and engineering services, on Tuesday said that the proposal by the All Party Representatives Committee (APRC), scheduled to be handed over to Sri Lankan president on Wednesday, would be delayed as the People's United Front (Mahajana Eksath Peramuna—MEP) and the extremist all monks Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) have demanded to reduce the level of devolution of provincial power in the draft proposal.
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